My Son Is Autistic, and I'm Terrified of What Betsy DeVos's Confirmation Will Mean for Him

My son is 7 years old and in the first grade. We spend a lot of time sounding out words in his reading homework, practicing tricks for doing subtraction, and singing songs about the planets to help him remember their order from the sun.

Rowan is autistic. He’s joyful and compassionate, empathetic and brilliant, hilarious and unbelievably kind. But none of those things seem to matter much in our society — a society that doesn’t accept him for who he is but pegs him as “weird,” “quirky,” a caricature. The world is often a hostile place for my kid, and with the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, I’m worried it’s about to get worse.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Our society is not built with people like Rowan in mind. We live in a verbal and conversational world, and have you noticed that everything is always so loud? I didn’t, until Rowan came into our lives. There are certain courtesies we teach our kids — look someone in the eye when you shake their hand, make sure you say good-bye when you leave — that Rowan can’t practice. He explains his emotions using movie quotes and character voices, which is not seen as socially acceptable behavior. He might flap his hands or lick his palms when he’s anxious in a new environment, which many people would rather not see. “How can we get him to stop doing that?” we ask, as if the deficiency is in the child, instead of our own intolerance for difference.

At his public school in Utah, where we live, Rowan receives services and interventions that help him navigate and operate in this world. Rather than try to change him (because there’s nothing wrong with being autistic), his teachers and administrators give him the tools he’ll need to reach his full potential. This is because federal law (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA) guarantees he receives a free and appropriate education; because of his diagnosis, he has a right to necessary services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and group activities for developing social skills, all funded by both federal and state dollars. Like other autistic kids and children with disabilities, he could use so much more than the school is able to give him. But budgets are tight, staff is underpaid, and the number of kids who have a diagnosis continues to rise.

With Secretary DeVos at the helm, that’s likely to get worse, and I’m a worried mom. Before her nomination, DeVos had never once stepped foot into the public school system in any official capacity — as an educator, administrator, staff member, parent of a student, or even as a student herself — which alone should have disqualified her from getting the job. Beyond that, she was unaware that IDEA is federal law, saying in her hearing that its enforcement should be left up to the states. To confirm her in the face of such ignorance was negligent on the part of our government. Every American should be concerned, but as a mother of a child with a disability, I’m terrified.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The other alarming problem with DeVos is that she advocates “school choice,” which is rooted in marketplace dynamics and aims to create a “healthy competition” among schools through a school voucher program. If you’re not familiar with school vouchers, here’s an explainer: Every state has both federal and state funding for education, and it’s usually broken down into a per-student sum. A voucher is like a coupon. All or some of the money that would have been used for that student in the public school system is given to the parents in the form of a voucher that they can use to send their child to a school of their choice — charter, private, or parochial.

This poses many problems for students with disabilities in particular. Even if a disabled student wanted to take a voucher and attend a private school, it doesn’t mean he or she would be able to attend: According to current federal law, private schools aren’t required to abide by federal standards, meaning they can disregard IDEA and not provide a student with a disability with adequate services and interventions. (In her hearing, DeVos didn’t seem too motivated to change that law.) Private religious schools in particular can deny a disabled student with a disability enrollment altogether, with no consequences. Either way, “school choice” can quickly turn into “no choice” for disabled kids and their families. Which may have been the case already, given that private schools are extremely expensive, and a voucher would only cover a fraction of the cost of most tuitions. In Utah, for example, each student is budgeted around $6,500 per year for education spending. But the average cost of private school for all levels in Utah is $9,202. That’s a $2,700 difference per child, assuming a voucher would include every dollar for which they’re budgeted.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

But this isn’t just an issue of options, or a lack thereof. As a voucher system funnels toward highly selective, very expensive private and parochial schools, public school districts may suffer deep budget cuts and be stripped of their ability to provide essential services and interventions to our nation’s most vulnerable kids — children with disabilities — many of whom don’t get any other assistance outside of school due to cost, lack of adequate insurance coverage, and other factors.

As Rowan’s mother, I appreciate the care, support and encouragement that he receives at school. He is welcome, he is integrated, he is not seen as “strange” by his friends, some of whom are autistic themselves. He’s just Rowan. Knowing the deep marginalization that autistic people and people with all disabilities face on a daily basis, I’m grateful for the foundation that he’s being given, and I’m grateful that other children have daily interactions with a peer who isn’t neurotypical. That’s the beauty of public school — it’s a common good, an institution that benefits both the marginalized and the privileged.

Under DeVos, I’m concerned that public education in America will no longer be seen as a common good, despite the fact that society is made stronger by securing the foundation of public education, not dismantling it. When we work to secure public education, we are bolstering a system that benefits marginalized children the most — kids with disabilities, kids living in low-income and minority communities, and refugee and immigrant children. Secretary DeVos talks about her desire to “empower parents to make choices on behalf of their children that are right for them,” but what she fails to acknowledge is that when it comes to education, no family is an island — whether or not we choose to participate in public education affects more than just our own children and that's worth our consideration as we make decisions about education policy. Secretary DeVos has the opportunity to move us forward or set us back when it comes to educational opportunities for students across this country, including the disabled. I hope she understands that.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Cosmopolitan participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.